Usability

[dr_tectonic]

My workshop is about forecast integration. That is, taking various pieces and interconnecting them so everyone gets more value. We've gotten to "usability" pretty quickly, which is to say, not just "throwing data over the transom", but engaging with users to find out what they need. Of course, that's not just asking people what they want, because sometimes you need to push back on what people ought to be asking for, so that means getting involved in a two-way dialogue.

People on both sides would benefit from dialogue, so why isn't it happening already? The usual answer to "why doesn't X happen" is "because nobody's being paid to do it". That applies here, I think. Scientists don't engage end-users in dialogue because they're not rewarded for doing so, and there's an opportunity cost for doing that instead of something that will get you more funding. So I think the big question for tomorrow is: how do we pay for the dialogue? That, and: will my poster have a demo?

Unrelatedly, I really can't cope with non-tabbed browsing anymore. Even though I regard IE with great scorn, I'm glad the latest version copied it from Firefox. It lessens the annoyance of being stuck with it.

Comments

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I've never tried dragging a link into the tab-bar. I've always middle-button-clicked to add a new tab. I suppose this is because I always have monotonically increasing numbers of tabs until I kill the browser.

Still, I suppose it's nice to know I could replace a tab, if I ever want to. :)

[navrins]

I typically have monotonically-or-nearly-so-increasing numbers of tabs too, but they increase much slower than the rate at which I want to look at another page without losing the one I'm on. For example, when reading my LJ friends page, I typically drag a comments page into the second tab, then return to the first tab to go back to my friends page (rather than using the back button, which is slower). I'm happy to reuse the second tab for every comments page, though - no need to open a new tab for each one!

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

OK, and I also see that as useful to avoid losing focus on the current tab.